Bring US troops home from Somalia quagmire now
President Donald Trump has declared his intent to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. He also should bring our troops home from Somalia’s quagmire and stop wasting American blood and treasure propping up an un-elected, corrupt Somali government.
Former President Barack Obama escalated U.S. military intervention in Somalia to fight al-shabab, an alqaida affiliate group that used to control swaths of territory in southern Somalia. But Trump has a chance to end U.S. involvement in Somalia the right way.
Now, al-shabab is on the run and can’t wage conventional warfare. The African Union mission troops known as AMISOM have systematically liberated most of the al-shabab-held territories in southern Somalia; alShabab leadership has also been decimated by US drone strikes.
The group can’t sustain a long-term endeavor without support from external forces or its financial backers in the rich Gulf Arab countries. It now relies heavily on extortion and racketeering for revenue.
Al-shabab is exploiting local grievances and discontent among marginalized clans who live in the Shebelle River valley and Juba regions. Those disaffected clans feel that the U.s.-trained, al-shabab-infected and single-clan-dominated Somali army is using the fight against al-shabab just to grab their fertile land. Although they don’t share al-shabab’s extreme ideology, they see the group as defending their lands from clan militias associated with the Mogadishu government.
The man the U.S. is backing as the leader of Somalia is holed up in a hilltop palace in Somalia’s capital. He heads a tenuous government that is unable to protect its people, administer justice or deliver basic services. The Somali government does not enjoy the support of a majority of Somalis. Without the support of the AMISOM troops it would collapse, and according to the U.S. State Department, “The security situation in Somalia remains unstable and dangerous.”
Somalia has failed to exercise even the minimal functions of a sovereign nation but the United States treats Somalia as one, as though membership in the highly politicized United Nations somehow confers legitimacy. The U.N.’S members include the worst human-rights abusers in the world, according to Amnesty Internationl: Syria, Myanmar, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Despite U.N. peace efforts, billions of dollars in foreign aid and 28,000 African Union soldiers from eleven countries, Somalia is still ungovernable — for factional reasons and because of the internal political feud among Somali political leaders over the spoils of foreign aid.
The heavy-handed foreign meddling, especially by Somalia’s self-interested neighbors, is detrimental to the creation of a secure environment for a functioning, stable government.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush sent 28,000 American troops as a part of a U.N. humanitarian mission after the fall of the Somali dictator Siad Barre. Our troops saved close to one million lives in southern Somalia. As soon as that mission changed into a U.n.-led nation-building effort, U.S. troops got involved deciding the winners and losers in Somalia’s civil war, which led to the death of 18 American servicemen. Finally, President Clinton ordered an orderly withdraw from Somalia.
President Trump took the oath to protect the American people and to secure its borders. He campaigned for non-interventionism and a no-nation-building foreignpolicy platform. He was not elected to use American forces to intervene in every foreign conflict, or in the case of the Somalia intervention, to back one faction of Somalia’s previous civil war in the place of al-shabab or to act as a proxy force.
Instead of dictating Somalia’s political future, the U.S. should let Somalis take charge of securing their homeland, protecting their people and fighting for their own country and destiny.
America’s options in Somalia are very limited because everything hinges on how Somali clans manage to forge a political process to work and live in peace together. There is no compelling goal here worth risking more American lives or treasure in Somalia’s clan-driven terrorism. It’s time to bring our troops out from Somalia and bring them home.
Ali Mohamed of Lewis Center is the founder and editor Gubanmedia.com, a 24/7 online magazine of news analysis and commentary about the greater Horn of Africa region. Email him at aliadm18@gmail.com.